The 2012 Black List of Unproduced Screenplays

Film executive Franklin Leonard has released his annual list of “most liked” unproduced screenplays in Hollywood at BlckLst.com. Leonard’s familiar introduction reads as follows:

The Black List was compiled from the suggestions over 290 film executives, each of whom contributed the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2012 and will not have completed principal photography during this calendar year.

This year, scripts had to receive at least six mentions to be included on the Black List. All reasonable effort has been made to confirm the information contained herein.

The Black List is not a best of  list. It is, at best, a most liked list.

Enjoy.

65
DRAFT DAY
Rajiv Joseph, Scott Rothman
On the day of the NFL Draft, Bills General Manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to save football in Buffalo when he trades for the number one pick. He must quickly decide what hes willing to sacrifice in pursuit of perfection as the lines between his personal and professional life become blurred.
Agency: Gersh, CAA
Agents: Lee Keele (Joseph), Chris Till, Bill Zotti (Rothman)
Management: Kaplan/Perrone (Joseph & Rothman)
Managers: Josh Goldenberg, Aaron Kaplan
Production: Montecito Pictures

43
A COUNTRY OF STRANGERS
Sean Armstrong
Based on true events. Inspector Geoff Harper conducts a forty year search for the Beaumont Children, three siblings taken from an Australian beach in January of 1966.
Agency: Verve
Agents: Aaron Hart, Adam Levine, Rob Herting, Bill Weinstein
Management: Principato-Young Management
Managers: Peter Dealbert, Susan Solomon

43
SEUSS
Eyal Podell, Jonathan Stewart
As a young man, Ted Geisel meets his future wife Helen, who encourages his fanciful drawings, and in the 1950s when Ted is struggling professionally, Helen helps inspire the childrens book that will become his first big hit, The Cat in the Hat.
Agency: Verve
Agents: Bryan Besser, Zach Carlisle, Rob Herting
Management: Industry Entertainment
Manager: Michael Botti, Jess Rosenthal

39
RODHAM
Young Il Kim
During the height of the Watergate scandal, rising star Hillary Rodham is the youngest lawyer chosen for the House Judiciary Committee to Impeach Nixon, but she soon finds herself forced to choose between a destined path to the White House and her unresolved feelings for Bill Clinton, her former boyfriend who now teaches law in Arkansas.
Agency: UTA
Agents: Barbara Dreyfus, Jenny Maryasis
Management: The Arlook Group
Managers: Richard Arlook, Jason Hong
Production: The Arlook Group, Temple Hill Entertainment

35
STORY OF YOUR LIFE
Eric Heisserer
Based on the short story by Ted Chiang. When alien crafts land around the world, a linguistics expert is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat. As she learns to communicate with the aliens, she begins experiencing vivid flashbacks that become the key to unlocking the greater mystery about the true purpose of their visit.
Agency: UTA
Agents: Barbara Dreyfus, Jon Huddle
Management: Art/Work
Manager: Julie Bloom
Financier: Film Nation
Production: Film Nation, Lava Bear, 21 Laps Entertainment

29
GLIMMER
Carter Blanchard
When three friends go missing on a camping trip in a forest rumored to be haunted, the two left behind discover clues that lead them to a safe deposit box containing video tapes showing exactly what happened to their friends.
Agency: Paradigm
Agents: David Boxerbaum
Management: Madhouse Entertainment
Managers: Ryan Cunningham, Adam Kolbrenner
Financier: Dreamworks
Production: Madhouse Entertainment

28
DEVILS AT PLAY
James Dilapo
In the Soviet Union in 1937, a worker of the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs finds a list of traitors, which he thinks is going to be his way out.
Agency: Verve
Agents : Aaron Hart, Rob Herting, Adam Levine
Management: Kaplan/Perrone
Manager: Alex Lerner

26
SWEET VIRGINIA
Paul China, Benjamin China
A former rodeo star unknowingly starts a rapport with a young man who is responsible
for all of the violence that has suddenly gripped his small town.
Agency: WME
Agents: Roger Green, Sarah Self
Management: Fourth Floor Productions
Manager: Jeff Silver

21
IF THEY MOVE KILL EM!
Kel Symons
After losing his luster and respect in Hollywood, famed director Sam Peckinpah hopes to direct his next great film with financial backing from Colombian drug lords and brings along a novice screenwriter to write the film in Colombia.
Agency: UTA
Agents: Emerson Davis, Charles Ferraro, Geoff Morley
Management: MXN
Managers: Michelle Knudsen, Mason Novick

20
AMERICATOWN
Ben Poole
In a China-dominated near future, a former LAPD officer attempts to save his family from destitution in Los Angeles by working for a crime lord in the American ghetto within a thriving Hong Kong.
Agency: Verve
Agents: Aaron Hart, Rob Herting, Adam Levine
Management: Oasis Media Group
Managers: David Lonner, Ben Rowe
Production: Sean Finegan

20
SAND CASTLE
Chris Roessner
Based on a true story, a group of United States soldiers in Iraq risk their lives to save a
local village.
Agency: CAA
Agents: Jay Baker, Jon Cassir, Matt Rosen
Management: Management 360
Managers: Darin Friedman, Ali Itri, Dean Schnider
Production: The Mark Gordon Company

20
THE JUDGE
Bill Dubuque
A successful attorney returns to his hometown for his mothers funeral only to discover that his Alzheimers-stricken father is suspected of murder and must represent him in court. The ordeal becomes an emotional journey that makes him a better man.
Agency: Paradigm
Agent: Trevor Astbury
Management: Zero Gravity Management
Manager: Eric Williams
Financier: Warner Brothers
Production: Bid Kid Pictures, Team Downey

19
CLIVE
Natasha Pincus
After an accident causes a successful CEO to lose both legs, he is forced to re-evaluate his life and identity.
Agency: Verve
Agents: Bryan Besser, Aaron Hart, Rob Herting

19
COMANCHERIA
Taylor Sheridan
Two brothers, one an ex-con and the other a divorced father of two kids, face the foreclosure of their familys West Texas farm. They team for a skillfully-calculated bank robbing spree that puts them on a collision course with two Texas Rangers determined to take them down.
Agency: Gersh
Agents: Bob Hohman, Devra Lieb, Bayard Maybank
Management: Elevate Entertainment
Manager: Jenny Wood
Financier: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
Production: Film 44, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment

19
WHALEMEN
Tucker Parsons
The leader of a fourteenth century Scottish whaling village must seek out and do battle with a whale many times larger than any he has ever seen in order to ransom back his son from the occupying English.
Agency: WME
Agents: Daniel Cohan, Cliff Roberts
Management: Madhouse Entertainment
Manager: Adam Kolbrenner

19
WHIPLASH
Damien Chazelle
Based on the eponymous short film written and directed by Chazelle. Under the director of a prestigious but borderline abusive instructor, a young college student begins to lose his humanity in his quest to become the core drummer of the top jazz orchestra in the country.
Agency: Gersh
Agents: Sandra Lucchesi, Frank Wuliger
Management: Exile Entertainment
Manager: Gary Ungar
Production: Right of Way Films, Blumhouse

18
GEORGE
Jeff Shakoor
When an acerbic alcoholic finds himself penniless and alone he has no choice but to crash his familys holiday. Years of alienating them makes for a stiff challenge, but eventually he subtly helps them heal.
Agency: CAA
Agents: Jon Cassir, John Garvey, Alex Mebed, Martin Spencer
Management: Anonymous Content
Manager: Luke Rivett
Production: Anonymous Content

17
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Based on the eponymous novel by John Green, a teenage girl stricken with cancer falls for a boy in her support group and the two form a bond as they deal with their illnesses.
Agenc: CAA
Agents: Robert Bookman, Bill Zotti
Management: Kaplan/Perrone
Managers: Aaron Kaplan, Sean Perrone
Financier: Fox 2000
Production: Temple Hill Entertainment

17
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
April Prosser
A twenty eight year old woman is about to get engaged to her great boyfriend, when
the ex she hasnt gotten over moves back into town. All of a sudden she isnt sure if
her boyfriend is really the one, and so she spends time decorating her exs new condo,
trying to figure it all out.
Agency: UTA
Agents: Blair Kohan, Carolyn Sivitz
Management: Kaplan/Perrone
Manager: Josh Goldenberg

16
THE BALLAD OF PABLO ESCOBAR
Matt Aldrich
After his family is almost killed in a car bombing, Pablo Escobar wages a war with a rival cartel and his own government in an effort to protect his family.
Agency: CAA
Agents: John Garvey, Stuart Manashil
Management: Silent R Management
Manager: Jewerl Ross
Financier: Scott Pictures
Production: Stone Village Productions (Brad Furman directing)

16
THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
Mark Hogan
During WWII, a a fifteen year old German boy is sent to America to spy for the Fatherland by joining a politically-connected family as an English war orphan. Tension mounts when the boy gets the chance to assassinate President Roosevelt..
Agency: Gersh
Agents: Bob Hohman, Devra Lieb, Bayard Maybank
Management: Kaplan/Perrone
Manager: Alex Lerner
Production: Michael Costigan

16
MAN OF TOMORROW
Jeremy Slater
In an alternate 1940s reality, the US Government makes a deal with an indestructible gangster to kill Hilter in exchange for the city of Chicago, which he will build into his own utopia. Unfortunately his model city never comes to fruition and both he and his Bureau liaison get much of the slack for destroying one of Americas greatest cities and now the government wants him dead.
Agency: UTA
Agent: Charles Ferraro
Management: Kaplan/Perrone
Manager: Aaron Kaplan
Production: Thunder Road Pictures

15
MURDER CITY
Will Simmons
An ensemble crime story set in Detroit about an ex-con who goes back for one last heist in order to settle his familys debt.
Agency: UTA
Agents: Jason Burns, Geoff Morley
Management: Energy Entertainment
Manager: Brooklyn Weaver

14
THE FINAL BROADCAST
Chris Hutton, Eddie OKeefe
A man takes a job as a radio broadcaster in a small town, only to discover that it is embedded with a radical group planning mass destruction in conjunction with an upcoming lunar eclipse.
Agency: WME
Agents: Simon Faber, Sarah Self
Manager: Tariq Merhab

14
THE SURVIVALIST
Stephen Fingleton
Years after lack of resources result in much of the worlds population dying off, a survivalist is living on a farm alone until a woman and her seventeen year old daughter show up looking for cover.
Agency: WME
Agents: Philip dAmecourt, Phil Raskind
Production: Goldcrest Films, Robert Jones

13
FROM NEW YORK TO FLORIDA
Austin Reynolds
An undisciplined boy is sent to Florida for the summer with his grandparents, and the drive south changes him forever.
Agency: Paradigm
Agents: David Boxerbaum, Lucy Stille, Ida Ziniti
Management: Madhouse Entertainment
Manager: Robyn Meisinger

13
HEY, STELLA!
Tom Shephard
The story of how Marlon Brando won the role of Stanley Kowalski in Elia Kazans broadway play A Streetcar Named Desire.
Agency: WME
Agent: Philip dAmecourt
Management: The Safran Company
Manager: Tom Drumm

12
THE BROKEN
John Glosser
In 1967 Oklahoma, a war vet/farmer investigates the suspicious death of his estranged son in the next county. When he discovers his sons brutal murder was a covered-up gay bashing, he goes on a one-man mission to take down the corrupt sheriff responsible.
Agency: ICM
Agents: RRobert Lazar, Kathleen Remington
Management: MXN
Managers: Michelle Knudsen, Mason Novick
Production: Ted Kroeber, Sam Worthington, Michael Schwarz, John Schwarz

11
MCCARTHY
Justin Kremer
It is 1951. Junior Senator Joe McCarthy feels lost. Hes anonymous, just another suit on Capitol Hill. He craves attention and celebrity. Hes desperate to be noticed, to be adored. Inspired by the response of the American public to the House of Un-American Activities Committee, McCarthy decides that communism will be his defining issue. What follows is nearly unthinkable  national fame, a shocking conspiracy, a sitting President afraid to oppose him, and a torrid journey of self destruction and paranoia.
Agency; CAA
Agents; Jon Cassir, Matt Rosen, Alexandra Trustman
Management: Madhouse Entertainment
Managers: Chris Cook, Adam Kolbrenner

10
THE PORTLAND CONDITION
Dan Cohn, Jeremy Miller
Set against the backdrop of rainy Portland, Oregon, a young man finds himself falling in love for the first time  only to receive a letter from his future self, warning him of impending heartbreak.
Agency: WME
Agent: Danny Greenberg
Management: Brillstein Entertainment Partners
Manager: Margaret Riley
Production: Flynn Picture Co., JC 23 Entertainment

10
UNTITLED COPS SCRIPT
Blake McCormick
Following a costume party where they dressed as cops, two best friends are mistaken for actual police officers and find themselves on the run, after being forced to bring a dangerous criminal back to the station.
Agency: UTA
Agent: Jason Burns
Management: Kaplan/Perrone
Managers: Aaron Kaplan, Sean Perrone
Financier: Universal
Production: Hurwitz & Schlossberg Productions

9
CONVERSION
Marissa Jo Cerar
A preachers wife, grieving from the loss of her teenage son and struggling to hold her family together, forms an unlikely friendship with a young street hustler who helps her understand her lost son and survive alcoholic depression.
Agency: ICM
Agent: Laura Haas
Management: Heroes and Villains Entertainment
Managers: Markus Goerg, Mikhail Nayfeld
Production: State Street Pictures

9
GOODBYE, FELIX CHESTER
Max Taxe
After finding out he has a month left to live, high school junior Felix Chester focuses all of his time and energy on one goal: losing his virginity to his dream girl.
Management: Madhouse Entertainment
Managers: Ryan Cunningham, Robyn Meisinger

8
DOPPELGANGERS
Evan Mirzai, Shea Mirzai
Buttoned-down 20-something Eric isnt ready to marry his longtime girlfriend Abby. His only way out is through slacker Sam, his identical twin brother, who offers to pose as Eric to do the dumping. But the plan becomes a disaster when Sam realizes Abby is actually really cooland falls head over heels for her
Production: The Walt Becker Company

8
OUT OF STATE
Eric Pearson
While driving his regular interstate bus route, an emotionally fractured ex-convict finds himself acting as a father figure to a forsaken young boy from the Philadelphia ghetto, even though he knows that the boy is smuggling drugs.
Agency: ICM
Agent: Doug Maclaren

8
TIMES SQUARE
Taylor Materne, Jake Rubin
Set amidst the transformation of Times Square from New Yorks seediest neighborhood to the commercialized Disneyland it is today, when a secret from his past is unearthed, a young mans loyalties are divided between his neighborhood boss who raised him and the grizzled ex-cop who swore to protect him.
Agency: WME
Agent: Simon Faber
Management: Oasis Media Group
Manager: Ben Rowe
Production: Chernin Entertainment, Perfect Storm Entertainment

7
BLEEDING KANSAS
Russell Sommer, Dan Frey
A runaway slave and a sheriff must journey to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Gubernatorial candidate against the backdrop of Kansas induction into statehood and whether or not it would be a slave or free state.
Agency: Paradigm
Agents: David Boxerbaum, Chris Smith
Management: Madhouse Entertainment
Managers: Chris Cook, Adam Kolbrenner

7
EX BOYFRIEND OF THE BRIDE
Matt Hausfater
After he finds out his ex-girlfriend is getting married, a man decides to go to the wedding in order to stop her from going through with it.
Agency: UTA
Agent: Jon Huddle
Management: Underground
Managers: Josh Turner McGuire, Evan Silverberg
Production: Hamburg Co.

7
HIBERNATION
Will Frank, Geneva Robertson-Dworet
A wrongly convicted inmate volunteers for a hibernation experiment in exchange for one day of parole every five years, which he uses to prove his innocence and search for his missing daughter across an increasingly futuristic landscape.
Agency: WME
Agents: Rich Cook, Philip dAmecourt, Solco Schuit
Management: Underground
Manager: Jill McElroy
Production: Management 360, Perfect Storm Entertainment

7
THE HOOVERVILLE DEAD
Brantley Aufill
Set in St. Louis in the 1920s, washed up baseball player Will Cosgrove is a private eye with his older brother Ross. When Ross goes missing, Will stumbles upon a deep secret that the disease taking over the town is not quite what it seems and a mob boss turned Governor will do anything to keep the towns secret from being revealed.
Agency: Paradigm
Agents: Trevor Astbury, Valarie Phillips
Management: Industry Entertainment
Manager: Jess Rosenthal

7
THE KILLING SPREE
Derek Elliott, Jack Donaldson
Heartbroken after being dumped by his longtime girlfriend, a guys best friends devise the perfect plan for his recovery and teach him how to sleep with as many women as humanly possible.
Agency: Verve
Agents: Zach Carlisle, Rob Herting
Management: Kaplan/Perrone
Managers: Josh Goldenberg, Aaron Kaplan

7
MIDNIGHT AT NOON
Nathaniel Halpern
On the run after robbing a bank during the great depression, two brothers find themselves trapped in the harsh region known as the Dust Bowl where a ruthless killer hunts them down.
Agency: CAA
Agents: JP Evans, Jacqueline Sacerio
Production: Gunn Films

7
THE OUTSKIRTS
Dominique Ferrari, Suzanne Wrubel
After falling victim to a humiliating prank by the high school Queen Bee, best friends and world-class geeks, Mindy and Jodi, decide to get their revenge by uniting the outcasts of the school against her and her circle of friends.
Management: Circle of Confusion
Managers: Zach Cox, Britton Rizzio

7
STOCKHOLM, PENNSYLVANIA
Nikole Beckwith
A young woman, kidnapped when she was a kid, returns home to the family she barely remembers and struggles to feel at home.
Agency: ICM
Agents: Val Day, Laura Haas, Bruce Kaufman
Management: Manage-ment
Manager: Dan Halsted

7
TRANSCENDENCE
Jack Paglen
An epic love story set in a time where a dying scientist is able to upload his consciousness into the internet and, facing its global implications, must fight against the forces who are actively working against the existence of a singularity.
Agency: ICM
Agent: Harley Copen
Financier: Warner Brothers
Production: Alcon Entertainment, Syncopy Films, Straight Up Films, Annie Marter

6
COME AND FIND ME
Zack Whedon
When his girlfriend goes missing, David must track down her whereabouts after he realizes shes not who she was pretending to be.
Agency: WME
Agent: Simon Faber
Production: The Dan Jinks Company

6
DONT MAKE ME GO
Vera Herbert
When a single father to a teenage daughter learns that he has a fatal brain tumor, he takes her on a road trip to find the mother who abandoned her years before and to try to teach her everything she might need over the rest of her life.
Agency: Gersh
Agents: Sandra Lucchesi, Margaret Mendelson

6
F*CK MARRY KILL
Neel Shah, Alex Blagg
Three best friends return for their high school reunion intent on righting all the wrongs done to them in high school by either f*cking, marrying, or killing their tormentors.
Agency: UTA
Agent: Carolyn Sivitz
Management: 3 Arts Entertainment (Shah)
Manager: Jonathan Berry (Shah)

6
HOLD ON TO ME
Brad Ingelsby
Based on an article written by Hillel Levin and Jim Keene, a ruthless and moneyhungry woman uses a hapless man as a pawn in her criminal schemes.
Agency: WME
Agent: Mike Esola
Management: Energy Entertainment
Managers: Brooklyn Weaver
Financier: Indian Paintbrush

6
KING OF HEISTS
Will Staples
Based on the book King of Heists: The Sensational Bank Robbery of 1878 That Shocked America, written by J. North Conway. An unassuming man in the elite New York society assembles a crew that pulls off the largest bank heist in American history in 1878.
Agency: WME
Agent: Philip dAmecourt
Management: Management 360
Manager: Brooklyn Weaver
Financier: Black Bear Pictures
Production: The Combine

6
THE LIGHTHOUSE
Eric Kirsten
William Van Alens building of the Chrysler building and the competition to be the first to complete the worlds tallest building.
Management: Benderspink
Manager: Chris Bender, JC Spink

6
PESTE
Barbara Marshall
Following the outbreak of a virus that wipes out the majority of the human population, a teen documents her familys new life in quarantine and tries to protect her infected sister.
Agency: APA
Agents: Debbie Deuble-Hill, Sheryl Petersen
Management: Industry Entertainment
Manager: Ava Jamshidi
Financier: IM Global